19 Facts About Turkmen people

Term Turkmen people is generally applied to the Turkic tribes that have been distributed across the Near and Middle East, as well as Central Asia, from the 11th century to modern times.

Turkmen people describes Oghuz as a Turkic tribe and says that Oghuz and Karluks were both known as Turkmens.

Genetic study on maternal mitochondrial DNA haplogroups of a Turkmen people sample describes a mixture of mostly West Eurasian lineages maternal lineages and minority of East Eurasian lineages.

Subsequently, Turkmen people tribes founded lasting dynasties in Central Asia, Middle East, Persia and Anatolia that had a profound influence on the course of history of those regions.

Great majority of Turkmen people readily identify themselves as Muslims and acknowledge Islam as an integral part of their cultural heritage.

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Turkmen people language is closely related to Azerbaijani, Turkish, Gagauz, Qashqai and Crimean Tatar, sharing common linguistic features with each of those languages.

In Iran, the Turkmen people language comes second after the Azerbaijani language in terms of the number of speakers of Turkic languages of Iran.

The medieval Turkmen people literature was heavily influenced by Arabic and Persian, and used mostly Arabic alphabet.

The music of the Turkmen people is closely related to the Kyrgyz and Kazakh folk forms.

The most famous Turkmen people bakshys are those who lived in the 19th century: Amangeldi Gonubek, Gulgeldi ussa, Garadali Gokleng, Yegen Oraz bakshy, Hajygolak, Nobatnyyaz bakshy, Oglan bakshy, Durdy bakshy, Shukur bakshy, Chowdur bakshy and others.

Techniques of weaving craft of Turkmen women are similar to homespun production of other peoples.

Characteristics of traditional Turkmen people cuisine are rooted in the largely nomadic nature of day-to-day life prior to the Soviet period coupled with a long local tradition, dating back millennia before the arrival of the Turkmen people in the region, of white wheat production.

That said, most Turkmen people could identify the tribe to which they belonged, though they might not identify themselves as Turkmen people.

Many Turkmen people became semi-nomadic, herding sheep and camels during spring, summer, and fall, but planting crops, wintering in oasis camps, and harvesting the crops in the summer and autumn.

Turkmen people lifestyle was heavily invested in horsemanship and as a prominent horse culture, Turkmen people horse-breeding was an ages old tradition.

Unique to Turkmen people culture is kalim which is a groom's "dowry", that can be quite expensive and often results in the widely practiced tradition of bridal kidnapping.

Music of the nomadic and rural Turkmen people reflects rich oral traditions, where epics such as Koroglu are usually sung by itinerant bards.

Turkmen people can be divided into various social classes including the urban intelligentsia and workers whose role in society is different from that of the rural peasantry.

The original Turkmen people groups came from east of the Caspian Sea into northwestern Afghanistan at various periods, particularly after the end of the 19th century when the Russians moved into their territory.